Local Youth Experience Life With an Oar

Last Friday, 50 local middle school students tasted the life of collegiate rowers.

The eighth grade students from Aki Kurose Middle School spent the day with members of the University of Washington crew team at Conibear Shellhouse. They hopped on ergometers, took a training barge out on the water for a practice row, toured the boathouse, and ate lunch in the team’s cafeteria.

Not even a cold, steady rain could dim the thrill of gripping an oar for the very first time.

For the eager students, the field trip represented a chance to glimpse a foreign lifestyle. They came to the UW as part of Row to the Future, a program that introduces rowing to Puget Sound-area kids who otherwise might never experience a sport that’s as much Seattle as coffee and drizzle.

“Seattle is surrounded by water, making rowing a part of the community here in a way that it isn’t in other places,” said Carla Bezold, development coordinator for the George Pocock Rowing Foundation.

The Pocock Foundation created Row to the Future to bring rowing to a broader population base. The sport remains dominated by middle- and upper-class white athletes, for a variety of reasons.

Expensive equipment often means costly membership fees. Someone is typically more inclined to try rowing when a friend, neighbor or family member already participates, meaning the sport tends to stay within certain communities. In addition, some kids don’t grow up taking swim lessons, leading them to shy away from a water sport.

Row to the Future attempts to address that demographic divide. In 2008, they launched Rainier Valley Rowing, a small youth program run out of the Mt. Baker Rowing and Sailing Center in South Seattle.

Unlike the far larger youth rowing program operating out of Mount Baker, Rainier Valley Rowing took on just 12 kids for the first two seasons. This year, they are working with 20 students. Rainier Valley Rowing helps the rowers with scholarships, hooks them up with swim lessons, and provides transportation to and from the boathouse. Rainier Valley Rowing members have come from as far as Renton and Skyway.

To make the program more accessible to kids in the city’s north end and suburbs, Row to the Future launched a sister program at Pocock Rowing Center last year. Pocock’s group operates in a similar manner to Rainier Valley Rowing.

While Row to the Future organizers consider both programs a success, they also wanted a way to reach a larger group of kids each year. As a result, they launched Erg Ed last fall.

The program initially selected three middle schools (Aki Kurose, Eckstein and Washington) and spent one week in physical education classes at each school. Each school’s P.E. teacher teamed up with Erg Ed instructor Heather Alschuler, a former Canadian Olympic rower, to teach the session. An “erg,” shorthand for ergometer, is the rowing machine athletes often practice on.

The weeklong Erg Ed session teaches basic rowing form, teamwork and goal-setting. At the end of the week, the students form four-person relay teams and see how “far” they can go in 10 minutes. They compare their scores with other middle school teams from all over the world, as everyone posts results on the website for Concept 2, an ergometer manufacturer.

“It’s amazing how much fun it is,” Bezold said.

 Erg Ed will run the program in the same three middle schools this spring. Next year, they plan to select eight new Puget Sound-area schools.

Bezold doesn’t assume the majority of Erg Ed students actually will take up rowing. She hopes a number will try the sport when youth rowing season begins in February.

For those who never set foot in an actual shell, Bezold hopes Erg Ed teaches them about teamwork and intensity. Others may decide not to try rowing this year, but could head to a shellhouse come high school or college. The field trip to the UW last Friday gave the eighth graders a sample of what their life could resemble in collegiate crew.

Upon wrapping up the day at Conibear Shellhouse, the middle school students gave their verdict on rowing. It was wet and cold, they said, but very, very fun.

Would they do it again?

Of course!